Ridiculous Study Blames Feminism for Non-Existent 'Happiness Gap' Between Men and Women

The only people that benefit from the Feminist movement are misanthropes like me.

http://www.city-journal.org/2008/18_1_single_young_men.html

Go ahead and read Child man in the Promised Land. I’ll wait.

Despite the fact that it is mostly mindless male bashing, it’s true. I’m a 27 year old army officer. If this was 1969, I’d be married with a second kid on the way. Thankfully Feminism freed me from that drudgery.

I’d like to take this opportunity to thank feminism for:

1 The sexual revolution. If it wasn’t for this, I’d have to buy, feed and stable the cow. Cow being an accurate comparison for today’s American women.

2 Abortion. Even if I never benefit directly from aborting an unwanted child, I am still thankful that clumps of cells in a women’s womb are disposable. Just like a women, I reserve the right to “abort” my responsibility to a child. Have fun changing diapers while I’m enjoying my freedom.

3 Equal Pay for equal work. Of course I believe that to people with the same job working the same hours should get the same salary. What I refuse to do is subsidize a women’s hobby of childrearing. If you do not spend the same time at work as a childless employ, you do not deserve the same pay. Nearly everyone, from parents to politicians, agrees with me but you’ll still have a few liars screaming about only making 78% of a man’s pay.

4 Thank you for the insane windfall divorce, alimony, and child support rates. 2 out of 3 divorcees are initiated by women. The men involved are likely to have to pay back rent on a vagina he is no longer occupying. That is why Western men are boycotting marriage in record numbers. While you’re at it, Google “declining marriage rates”, or “Marriage Boycott”.

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i havent read stevenson and wolfers..but there is a kernel of truth in this notion that feminism has made women less happy...to wit..the products of feminism include maggie thatcher..carly fiorina..ann coulter..michelle bachmann..condoleeza rice..and liz cheney.. just to name a few...and they make this woman very unhappy...

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Any married man or clothing store owner could have spared all the research by telling you what they have known for thousands of years: Women are never happy no matter what you do.

I'd argue that the goal of freedom, equality, justice, and so on should not be to make anybody happy which, as both articles admit in one way or another, is an impossible task. Rather, the goal should be to do the right thing because it's the right thing.

Trying to measure happiness and trying to make people happy is futile and pointless. Some people love to bitch and complain no matter what--including men and women who get everything they want--because they love to bitch and complain, because they have nothing better to do, or whatever their reasons. No person, institution, law, or policy should be responsible for anybody's happiness because, as the original article mentions, happiness is variable and subjective.

Today's feminism, like any other self-promoting business, product, or interest group, is fed by cultivating a perception of unhappiness in its target demographic, as the original article implies. If today's list of complaints are resolved, you can be sure there will be a new list to replace it. Many interest groups start with a set of real and legitimate gripes, but as those gripes are addressed, those gripes are often replaced with more minor and petty ones, and the group becomes more about fighting for and justifying its existence, politics, etc. than making things right and solving real problems.

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I'm a 53-year-old divorced woman. (Some people might say I'm a feminist, I see myself as a humanist.) And I'm happier than I've ever been in my entire life.

I feel more positive, more powerful, more confident, more beautiful than I have ever felt before.

I have a multitude of things for which to be thankful, and the test results to prove it here: linked text

That's not to say my life is a bowl of cherries. Certainly not. I face many challenges, including occasional bouts of loneliness, despair and sadness. Is that out of the ordinary? I think not.

Overall, I feel wonderful. I have my own successful coaching consultancy, and a little over a year ago I launched a website to celebrate and inspire women (linked text).

I believe happiness is a choice. Practice choosing it every day, and you get better and better at feeling it...

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Let's all go look for results we can agree with, if reality doesn't live up to what we refer to believe about things.

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I really like kepstein's 2nd and 3rd paragraphs (in his response above).

I think that rights/equality/freedom/justice are not at their core about making people "happy", but about allowing them to fully participate and expand their opportunities/experience of the world as equals.

If opening up the world for women to fully participate makes them happy or unhappy or reveals new problems, then so be it.

"Liberation" is never an easy path. Look at the ex-colonial countries that gained liberation - it hasnt been an easy road for them, but it has been necessary for them to free themselves from Western Imperialism. I think the same goes for women.

The sad reality is that women pre-womens lib didnt have choices that women have today. They didnt get to fully participate or fully experience the world or themselves until there was a movement that broke the barrier and allowed them to do that. I think that might be the difference - the fact that women in the past had lower expectations, so they had higher happiness levels.

I think you can parallel this study to a study done comparing the 1970's generation to the 1950's generation - it was done in the last couple of years, but i have no reference for it. The 1950s gen was happier and the 1970s gen was less content in their old age. Why? Apparently because the 1970's gen had higher expectations of the world. The 1950's gen on the other hand already had low expectations for themselves and the world, and as a result are happier in their old age. Does that mean the youth rebellion of the 1970's was "bad"? Not at all!

I have a real problem with the dominant strand of feminism in the West today. I think it trivialises the womens movements in the past and their aims (not all, but most)...but thats another story.

I guess the question people might ask is, 'if winning more rights potentially brings you less "happiness", should you fight for those rights?' My answer would be yes - I want the opportunity to fully experience my world and myself and I want other people to be able to do the same.

Human liberation should not be reduced to subjective ideas of happiness.


Incidentally former Imperialist countries that see post-colonial countries struggling have a tendency to say "see how much trouble you have now? If you had remained a colony you would be better off". The response inevitably is that regardless of their troubles, freeing themselves from the yoke of imperialism was necessary. It is the same situation with women.

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Most of todays women equate happiness to their rate of material consumption. Many confess that their reason for finding a man is for the sole purpose of increasing their income. But not all women fall into that category. Some enjoy life on a limited budget and ask for very little. A recent study of high priced call girls found that most viewed themselves as happy. But some said they would be happier if business improved.

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Except for the comment just above, I find the the first four remarks reprehensible. But then, considering their sources (none too fine examples of "happiness" and positivity in the past, as I recall) what does one expect, right? (One never knows where one's comment may show up so I hasten to say I am talking about the first three or four negative comments under this subject prior to 6am EDT.)

As a Mom of Four and a Grandmother, who started my career a bit late and certainly never reaped any great monetary rewards, I have to say I enjoy "having it all" as I look back from the vantage point of many, many years. I had all my four kids just before the onset of the Feminist Movement and separated from my husband in the mid-seventies.

Sadly I did not enjoy the support of one of those loving, supportive types, but rather an angry, controlling and critical guy. It was devastating, but much later, a relief, not to have to answer to anyone when it came to planning my life, although it took a few unhappy transitional years to get used to that. Now, however, I love it.

I also love my very adult kids and my Grandkids, my interests, books, and other things I've been able to do along the way. It is possible for a woman to be happy, with or without marriage and/or children.

But I firmly believe a woman (or a man) will be miserable if tied to a Partner who is inconsiderate or incapable of living or relating decently with another human being, although good counseling or therapy may change that if BOTH are willing (and they should try if they have kids because it makes a huge difference to the kids.) But we are not talking about Family Life here, are we, Guys?

For this reason IMHO, happiness is not a matter of either/or, but of both/and. One can always start over (with the happiness gig, even though it is difficult) anytime.

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Whilst I am a supporter of the Feminist movement, on equality and liberation grounds, it is at least partially responsible for what is a quite radical breakdown of the family unit in Western society.

Freedom is all well and good, but it comes at a heavy price. A by-product of Feminism is selfishness. Selfish individuals, whilst quite possibly attaining material wealth and other goals are rarely truly happy in the real sense of the word. They may be free to have for example highly exciting multiple sexual or other encounters which gives a massive short term buzz, but its like a drug fix from which they come down.

Look around you and ask where is the Love?

Antichrist, in his verbal illustration hit the nail on the head. I doubt he's ever experienced it, or ever will. He doesn't know what it is.

Tony

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I find it interesting people are still being judged by social grouping. Gender roles, racial stereotypes, and class distinctions are simply ideas instilled through social traditions. Once people are seen as individuals and not part of a specific group each person can seek happiness in their own way. For instance, a person who happens to be a woman might choose not to have kids so she can devote her time to research, something important to her, or a man might stay home with the kids because of the importance he attaches to them. These are individual decisions and should be seen as that, not judged by the social constructs of what is "appropriate" for women or men.

Perhaps "unhappy" for women comes in when they want to make life decisions that are contrary to the norm but feel pressured not to do so, or they have made a life choice that sets them apart and they suffer the societal consequences. As the older generation is replaced by more open younger people this should dissipate.

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Women are losing their rights and attacks on their choices and freedoms which only Western Women have, means the rest of the World and their ways will become dominant over our culture. This includes men.

Everywhere else in the World, there is a reversal of the freedom of Women or a status quo. Reversals are seen in the rapes of Chinese owned Congo, the Middle Eastern countries of Iran and Afghanistan. In South America women are treated as objects in most areas and this is definitely true of most Indian culture. In China, unwanted girls are in torturous conditions in orphanages.

The anti-female attitude has a battering quality about it and as abilities progress into brain interfaces, girls and women face rape, destruction and even extinction.

As it was during emancipation, it was men standing up for their wives and daughters that helped women gain their rights and made America strong. As for the working women, this began as men went to fight World Wars I and II. They could never have won the wars without the women's workforce. That is also true today.

Women with children must be supported by society. It is the only moral and sophisticated thing to do. Law enforcement and Judges should to removed for "blaming the victims".

The old and wrong interpretations of women as evil for handing an apple to Adam by Eve need to be discarded along with the sexist preachers who espouse to be Christians.

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...the level of unhappiness is more reflective of the deteriorating working conditions we all find ourselves under now instead of 'feminism'. Most of us seem to be working harder and harder for less and less compensation. I find THAT pretty depressing. Seems to be one of those correlation is not causation things to me.

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Happiness shouldn't even be a goal. It is attendant to certain kinds of activities, but it is not a goal. A goal is to leave the Earth better than we found it. That doesn't focus on a single individual but upon all living things, human included.

Ehrenreich's point about the slipperiness of happiness is right on. It is something that can't be measured--and may not even be worth trying to measure. As for social metrics, I'd rather focus on measurable outcomes: children in school, books read, artwork accomplished, children surviving past five years--that sort of thing. Save me from yet another half-assed "scientific" study depending upon questionnaires and fancy statistics.

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Of course there is a difference between a female that hates men and a feminist. I am a heterosexual man (a.k.a: breeder). As such a man, I can tell the difference between a feminist and a man-hater right away but I am not so sure females can see the difference. Those females you mentioned are simply man-haters who have either been mistaken as feminist or have actually infiltrated and been accepted by feminist as feminists. The later group are the ones I am most concerned with as they have successfully hi-jacked the feminist movement and have transformed feminism into (for lack of a better word) men-haterism. For all intents and purposes, the feminist movement has been over for at least 2 decades (maybe more but I can only go on what I have seen personally) and it has been replaced by the man-hater movement. Perhaps that is what is making you unhappy. I know I sure am unhappy about it. Did I mention how much I like females?

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Men cannot help being heels they all think they are Achilles. The only place they are vulnerable is their worst asset. Being a horse has its perks I have no authoritarian anal sphincter to kowtow to, so I can say what I damned well please.

By the time human males take responsibility for that internal monster they carry around hell will be a cold place indeed. Most men actually believe the spew they garble about where female happiness is concerned, having never had the proper plumbing for a female whoopee or felt a rousing orgasm of their own they have no idea what happiness can be.

So, being in this state they DICtate to others how they will be happy whether they like it or not! This later condition (of course) being the major cause of their own unhappiness they imagine some foolery about what SHOULD make women happy. The latter based on some mutated form of fascism caused by the very state of being incapable of total body orgasm.

As any woman can tell you who is healthy enough to have experienced an orgasm for themselves. “I don’t need no stinking males to blow my scalp off with a whooper.”

Women who hang around with sick men get sick themselves, lack energy and the next thing you know they start sounding just like the goon they are stuck with. They get back aches, have bad breath, loose hair and fart in public. (Believe me if you get sick enough you will fart in public!)

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Including this one.

Abstract notions and studies thereof such as happiness, society, feminism, culture, etc., are merely a way for otherwise untalented folks to avoid doing something productive, like digging ditches, roofing houses, or cooking.

It's rhetorical bullshit against bullshit, with the winner the one who attracts most people due to the least amount of obnoxious scent to the largest number of folks.

Good luck with that. Stink less...yay!!!!! What a grand thing to aspire towards...

P.S. These adventures into the abstract are solely a product of luxury and free time. You had better watch your grant as the rest of globe catches on to that weakness in our "society".

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Years ago, in college, studying health/psychology, we were analyzing depression. The results were very clear: Most depresse = married women; second = single men; third= married men; fourth, being the LEAST depressed = single women.
So, as a single women, clinically I am the least depressed and if I marry, I fall to the other end of the spectrum, being most depressed. You gotta wonder what marriage does to people.
Men marry and they move from more depressed to less depressed while women marry and move from least depressed to most depressed.

Could it be the expectations of married life?
Maybe just the reality of married life.
Might not have anything to do with feminism.

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For heaven's sakes, there seems to be something glaringly missing from all this analysis and that is the fact that everybody is pretty unhappy today, especially Americans. Bush took our country to the lower depths, and the resulting lowering of our status, our financial security, the rottenness of our workplaces has eroded our sense of well being.

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Women have been scruntinized, observed and analyzed since the beginning of time. It's some kind of hobby. Everyone weighs in! For the most part we hear about what's wrong with us and how to change whatever? The Feminist movement brought this all to the forefront. Admittedly in a not so subtle and sometimes obnoxious way. But I can understand why the men became confused. So did the women. The difference between the comfortable predictable woman we all new over the decades became the woman who might not want children, perhaps not even a husband. Face it, landing a man had been the high point of everywoman's life since day one. It isn't anymore. So the orderly life that gave society great comfort changed. Not just in the U.S. but all around the world. The idea of a woman running President of the U.S. used to be a joke. Not any more. Women who are high achievers no longer have to be humble and hide out. We no longer defer to men because it's the polite thing to do. It's OK to be smart. For those who like it the old way, well it's still out there, but not to the extent that is was for our fathers and grandfathers. We have come a long way. It's not about 'making us happy'. It's the freedom to pursue a life that we plan for ourselves, which may or may not include someone else. We can also determine whether or not we are happy or unhappy. ANNA

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--by which the Founding Fathers meant SOCIAL happiness. In this respect, feminism has made our society more unified, happier, less tearing itself apart.

We look at countries where millions of female babies are regularly killed off after their births, where girls who have sex out of marriage are killed off by their brothers and fathers in revenge killings, where women jump onto their husbands' funeral pyres, where the AIDS virus is rampant because for two generations most of the men have gone around having sex with prostitutes and with very young girls of their villages. These are socially unhappy countries.

In any country, the people may smile because their spiritual beliefs tell them to act that way. Americans may be less happy because an American wave of religious-based logical positivism came to America, then went. You can still find remnants of these incessantly happy people in Wasilla, Alaska and at the door of Wal-Mart.

Maybe the average person is less happy now than in 1959 because, despite our national productivity having exploded upward 100-fold in 50 years, the median income has dropped. Wouldn't that make you unhappy?

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My doctoral research focused on today's high-achieving women. I found that they struggled with feeling content. If found that they often lost their sense of self in their restless pursuit of excellence. Yet I also found them to be passionate, confident and pleased they had so many possibilities to act on in their lives, which their often-angry, often-depressed mothers did not. I address this issue in my book, Wander Woman (to be released by Berrett-Koehler June, 2010). I agree that "happiness" is not the issue. Feminism and the self-help movement opened many doors. We just need help figuring out what paths to take and who we are as we wind down these many paths. We don't need to know our strengths (Buckingham...you are a bit behind the times) or be taught steps to happiness. It's time to shed the light on the emerging identity of women in the world so they can better understand who they are, how to feel comfortable with their restlessness, and how to channel their passion to realize their ideals.

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It's suspicious that this study was announced after the recession.
The women who report unhappiness may well be single mothers with children, raising them on pink-collar wages, welfare, or UEC, information which is absent from the abstract of the report.

Second question: happy with what? Single women usually do report highest happiness, but when caught in the grip of inflating prices and decreasing employment opportunities and investment values, even we may be a little shaky.

Unhappy with relationships where the bar is set too high by porn queens or sadistic or bondage porn? Maybe so...

Unhappy with a society which wants us to starve ourselves to the size of a heroin skell, crack addict, or Auschwicz survivor? No doubt...whothehell wants to be a walking trendsetter for the addiction trade and an ambulatory excuse for bosses whose pay scale means either pay rent or eat healthy, but not both?

Feminism seeks to solve these problems, not create more. Some of us just want the problem of male attitude towards women solved, rather than the usual feminist and male chauvinist advice to go lesbian and let the male chauvinist pigs off the hook. Now there's where feminism makes me unhappy!

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Just to clarify, it is a fact that Clinical depression is much more common in women than in men.
Citation

I don't know if "rate of clinical depression" is the same thing as a "happiness gap" and I certainly don't think that empowerment causes a decrease in "happiness" or an increase in clinical depression, but real clinical depression is more common in women than in men.

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Debunking a study they don't agree with ( ideologically ) and accepting as truth studies that have been proven flawed ( the IPPC report on 'global warming' )

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There's an infamous quote by Freud: "What do women want?", as in "I can't understand them; they're nuts."

To which Marilyn vos Savant answered: Women want what men want: respect. Go, Aretha Franklin!!

If we treat each other with mutual respect, and avoid the "hooters" mentality, I bet we'd all be a little happier.

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I hate to have to bring this up here, but it needs to be said.
I grew up around many feminists and lesbians, at one point I had to ask this one couple why I was noticing that the women they got into the movement were becoming miserable in their relationships with men, and the point I asked about was this,were they busy trying to make life better for the women they spoke to, or were they busy trying to make the women miserable so they could get them on the other team? now many won't like the answer I was given, but the simple fact is that they were more interested in being able to treat women as they saw men treating women rather than making life better for the women they intoduce to the movement.
Now I'm sure there will be those that say I'm full of it ,but I'm not, this did happen and these 2 women couldn't believe I was smart enough to have noticed what was going on, I should also mention they found it very funny that most of the women never let the idea cross their mind, it shold be mentioned that they found great enjoyment in treating these
women as morons.

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Why are married women on the whole unhappy? Chris Rock summed it up neatly: you were not her first choice.

To put it more succinctly, she screwed up with the guy she should have wed, and ended up with you instead.

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Given the level of personal detail, this guy (? - who knows?) is probably serious. Nonetheless, he offers a useful point of view.

In particular: his main points are basically true, though only part of the story. Men do benefit in the ways he describes (among more legitimate others); and he points out some of the challenges we still face in adjusting to equality.

The main point I want to make is that we are still in the transition of a huge social change - bigger than I think most feminists realized. Transitions are stressful in themselves; unfinished ones cause all sorts of unhappiness. I think that's what shows up in the polls. We still have a lot of work to do - and devil's advocates are essential to that.

It gets better: an article I read many years ago, by a woman, pointed out that men were rejecting their gender role BEFORE the women's movement. She referenced in particular the "Playboy Philosophy", which I won't try to describe here, but it does support her point. This guy represents it quite well. Note that he's perfectly happy with equality.

The whole system was breaking down, and feminism was partly a response to that more fundamental change. Here we have a spokesman; we should be more grateful.

Or to put it another way: he's yanking your chain.

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Children need upbringing that is compassionate, fair and relentless. Feminism has cheated our children out of the attention and discipline of at least one loving and caring parent throughout the day.

It doesn't matter what parents know or don't know because attention, salience and coherence are more important than factoids or Official teachings. The day-to-day interaction between a parent and his or her kid guarantees that the child will understand limits and boundaries in the way and to the extent that his family understands Law and Accountability.

That's better, by definition, than the nihilistic [teaching 5-year olds about masturbation and bestiality under the UN curricula for children] and barbaric teachings that come under "uncivil behavior" and "naturalistic behavior" and "primitive behavior" led by Globalists today--anything to hamper and place more limits on human families and neighborhoods.

It's a cultural thing. Globalists and Liberals think everybody's children ought to be taught the same stuff; that everybody's children ought to walk the same "Let's get ahead" ideology; "Let's be popular" personal philosophy and "Let's go to bed" compulsion for instant intimacy.

Conservatives don't want what Liberals want. And Middle-of-the-Roaders just aren't sure what they want; they're waiting for an idea or some inspiration.

In the meantime, everybody's kids get cheated out of the time they might have spent with and learned to love at least one of their parents. Thanks to Feminism.

It was the Rockefeller Institutes' way of enslaving the masses, to force everybody's children into the same same path to Secular Materialism and Orthodox Globalism.

No way Jose! That's no way to treat your own bloodline!

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... — or that should be scrote and complain — that women are not happy with anything. This study is satirical indeed!

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Maybe the comparison should be female unhappiness vs male anger, I believe both are increasing because of our increasingly complex and over-stressed world. Not only that everyone working isn't enough and there isn't time to keep up finances, a family, a home, and a relationship.
Women are paid less for the same work so now more women are employed than men.
Anyway group marriages that pool greater resources and split responsibilies and share skill sets may be a good solution plus allowing for a biodiversity of intimacy within a committed stable long term environment. It would also cure lots of abandonment fears and would help defuse abuse and substance abuse in secrecy sorts of behaviors.

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Toward the end of her article, Ehrenreich refers to "the Wharton study". That struck me as so odd, I used the link she provided to see the source of the study.

Sure enough -- this study wasn't done by psychologists or sociologists, it appears to have been done by economists at Penn's Wharton School of Business, a traditional bastion of privilege and corporatism. Both Betsey Stevenson and Justin Wolfers are in Wharton's "Business and Public Policy" Department, and also associated with economic research bodies elsewhere.

Oh well, no doubt economists are just as good at describing the human psyche as they are at, oh, predicting the effects of a housing bubble or the derivatives market that it supported....

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Wow. First Ms. Ehrenreich questions the entire concept of measuring happiness, in an attempt to get us to distrust any conclusions that might be gained by studying it.

Then she goes on, not "[anti-intellectually]" at all, claiming that the scientists are using magic (occult) to manipulate the data to get the result desired. It's one thing to claim a statistical tool is inappropriate to analyze a given data set, another to claim that she should be able to see a "discernible trend to the naked eyeball" from the answers of hundreds of men and women from various backgrounds without any statistical manipulation at all. No, not anti-intellectual at all when something you don't understand must be magic. Furthermore, out of the multiple conclusions (absolute and relative levels of happiness or unhappiness for males and females, which can then be broken down int further sub-groupings), she reports there was only one - relative level of unhappiness between males and females.

Although when you are measuring the speed of light under different physical circumstances a change like that would be stunning - light normally travels 1.33 times faster in air than in water, not less than 2%.

This is to get back to her main point (contrary to the headline), that really the study isn't a big deal since there is no conclusive evidence that feminism caused the decrease in happiness and increase in unhappiness, or that feminists have been affected differently.

Of course, the real reason people are writing about it these days is so Marcus Buckingham can advertise his new book on happiness. So click on the advertisement on the first page and "buy the book" Ms. Ehrenreich wrote.

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No thanks to the feminist movement, men in America are thought to make selfish and irresponsible fathers who abandon their children for pursuit of a better life and greed. New studies have found that to be baseless and on the contrary the data show that 80% of divorced men send child/spousal support checks. Of the remaining 20%, they are either undereducated or mentally ill.

The court system routinely give women the benefit of the doubt and think that mothers are more caring than fathers toward their offspring, there too the common practice is wrong, it has been established that men go through severe depression and mourn their loss deeply. But since men are not good at expressing their inner feelings as freely as do women, they suffer even greater pain and agony.

Feminism has many negative contributions to the well being of the American children because fathers are viewed as angry and violent, unloving and insensitive creatures not to be trusted with child care. The entire society suffers when a parent is denied their role and the real victims are the innocent children. We have so much more violence in America and i think one big source of it is a severe lack of parental love. I hope that we as a society will move beyond the fanatical however passive violence of the feminism movement and treat our boys and men as loving and caring people.

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Her Son Is a Brilliant Artist and Photographer. He went to the same School as My Daughter and I know He Fancied Her Like Rotten, Because He Told Me. It was like him saying "Tony is it O.K. if I go down on my knee and ask if I can marry your daughter...???"

I said - "Well - have you asked her out yet?" He said - "Well not exactly - but we have been on several week long school trips together when I spent most of the time taking photos of her..."

I felt really proud to be asked.

I love his Mum to bits..

She has no inhibitions whatsoever expressing her love to both men and women in a really genuine way - just by being really friendly and nice and playing little games and hugging and kissing and stuff.

She then goes on about all the female musicians - especially, the really heterosexual ones.

Nowt wrong with being Gay

Tony

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I didn't read the report; however, it occurs to me that women, whether feminists or not, when asked if they are happier now than in 1970 might reply that they are less happy - - - they are almost 40 years older now than they were then. Was that taken into account during the survey?

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As has been stated above, Ehrenreich is really foaming in the mouth! She must own a lot of stock in the Feminist business. Get a grip girl--take some sedatives and calm down.
This study was only noting a trend that most of us see in real life. Women are becoming both more depressed and more unhappy. And Feminism is certainly one of the causes--if not the only cause. More and more women are choosing to live with men without Marriage. One of the reaons for this is men are not interested in being financially fleeced by women. Women file almost 90 per cent of divorces. Women are nuturers yet are--if you listen to the Feminist Mantra--only valuable if they have professions and actively work at them. Feminism takes no middle ground. Men are lying scum, Women are wonderful. The fact that statistically 30 per cent of all children are not fathered by the man who thinks it is his child may have something to do with this. Furthermore, the constant barrage of faulty information concerning rapes is another reason--rape misrepresentation ranges between 40 and 60 per cent based on who is doing the study. This lying and misrepresentation affects not only men, but their wives, sisters, daughters and Mothers as well as squandering enormous resources that could more appropriately utilized to help people. The main feminine group that has reaped the most benefits from feminism is middle and upper middle class white women. Lower middle and impoverished women have seen little if any gains as a result of feminism. Feminism has been the main reason for the destruction of the American Family, and Feminism is directly responsible for the almost 80 per cent of Black American children that have no interaction with their father and most of whom do not even know who their father is. It is no secret that we have more counselors, teachers--mostly (female), administrators and psychologists, psychiatrists,nurses and doctors than at any time in the history of the USA, but we can only get 58 percent of our children to pass high school in four years. And, our schools which are supposed to be havens and safe places for children are turning into firing ranges for our daughters and sons. And let's not even talk about the millions and milliions of latch key kids while Mommy is trying to bring home the bacon. Every major study has demonstrated that children need a two loving parents to efficiently assimulate into society--but as everyone knows, no-fault divorce precludes that possiblity in many cases because of the clear bias for the Mother. There is even no federal requirement for a Mother to spend her Alimony money on her child. If she chooses, she can purchase crack and it is perfectly acceptable to the state. There is no financial disclosure requirement on the part of a Mother. She can do anything she likes. And, if she is on Welfare, there is no requirement to even make an attempt to pay the money back once the child/children are emancipated. It is a free gift courtesy of the State and Federal government! And, since there are more women than men (52 per cent) guess who has to pay for these "gifts," via taxes--you guessd it, women. There is an old saying: "If it looks like a duck, quacks like a duck and walks like a duck, maybe it's a duck." Perhaps you may want to keep this in mind while you are foaming at the mouth Barbara and staying up to wee hours in the morning looking for reasons this study is "ridiculous."

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The middle of the twentieth century was an era of mind expansion, drugs, ‘free love’ and a rethinking of core values held so dear and long. Antiquated values had brought us to the brink of global nuclear destruction. All the while consumerist work ethics devastated earth’s fragile eco-systems.
As we all, men and women, became more enlightened it became harder to simply accept things as they had always been.
We were all happier when we were unthinking sheep. Ignorance is bliss, as the old saying goes. We can't go back to the way things were.
Now we must accept the responsibilities and challenges that come with our new-found freedoms.

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I'd be really curious to see a similar study done somewhere in Europe...

See, I'm from a place where you simply don't think there's a curious gender divide that spans the entire Solar system (Venus/Mars, get it, huh?)

My mother was born in the 20's and went on to have a major career in addition to being happily married and having me. She did occasionally run into gender discrimination - the last time she concluded it with a slap in a very public place (the guy became one of her biggest fans).

I never heard of feminism or gender equality until I got here - I simply lived it. It astounds me how new and confusing the gender equality issue still seems to be to young women in this culture who had grown up well after women got equal rights.

Looking from "outside", it appears to me that the main cause of unhappiness in women in the US is that everyone's telling them they're victims, and they fall for it. We're supposed to be victims of fashion, body image, work place, men's potential aggression and ad infinitum. BS.

You are only as much of a victim as you agree to be. Man hit you? Hit him back or call police (and remember, *this* man is an asshole, not all of them). You're not getting paid enough? Find a new job or start your own company like I did. Everyone telling you you're fat? Find some clothes that actually make you feel good (forget this year's fashion police), and some friends and dates that like you that way - there's plenty of them. Not happy in the relationship? Dump him and find someone who fits you better (and don't expect *them* to solve all your problems). First, spend some time figuring out what you want and need from your partner. *It's not their job to figure it out.*

I'm a divorced middle aged woman with ample curves, a great job I created, wonderful friends of both genders and all sizes and income levels and two sweet boyfiends, living in what I think is a most beautiful city in the world. Yeah, I'm not rich and I don't look like a movie star, but I don't need either to be happy.

It's simple. Stop waiting for the world to deliver, and make your own happiness.

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I'm kinda surprised that commenters have been so quick to lay the blame for these pseudo-findings (the researchers are economists, remember?) at the feet of women -- especially here on AlterNet. 1972 was a very different time from 2006, especially for women, as we on the progressive side of things should know better than most.

1972 was a more naive and optimistic time, when the second wave of feminism had already started affecting women's lives, and women saw new roads opening before us. We still thought Viet Nam was an anomaly, and believed we could bring US involvement in that conflict to an end (as we did). Regular people, not just orchestrated teabaggers, were taking to the streets and speaking (and singing) their minds. Overall, we were still proud to be Americans, and hopeful that more opportunities for women would make our lives better.

Remember 2006? Not just Republicans, but evangelical, torture-crazy, Patriot-Act Republicans controlled every branch of government. We were just discovering that our phones and e-mail had all been tapped without warrants. Our leaders had involved us in two simultaneous and insane wars, with no clear objectives and a lot of horrible aspects, like Halliburton and Blackwater. When the Vice President was told that the public absolutely hated what his administration was doing, his response was to smirk at the camera and say, "So?" People were arrested simply for wearing T-shirts that expressed their opinions. The economic exploitation of regular people was reaching its limits, with most families carrying a gigantic load of consumer debt to make up for the stagnation in 95% of people's wages, and women were still the primary shoppers who had to make $5 buy $10 worth of family basics.

We all know that women are more likely than men to be Democrats, and to be peace demonstrators, and to be the quartermasters of their households. If American women were a fraction less happy in 2006 than in 1972, why on earth assume that it's because women are impossible, or because feminism "masculinized" women? How 'bout maybe American women were a little less happy in 2006 because 2006 was a fucking nightmare in America?

The old feminist observation, "the personal is political," is quite true. It is also true that the political is personal. In 1972, that was an empowering thing; in 2006, that was a nightmare.

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and we're not any happier than our ancestors. How happy did they think women were in the past when they had 10 kids due to no birth control and several of them died? How happy were they when they were absolutely so worn out and tired and broke that they died in their 40's or 50's? What bullshit!

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It's been mostly fun reading all of these comments. The ones that resonated suggest that increased stress due to economic downturn is surely part of the historical context here. The second is that women were acculturated back in the bad old days to say they were happy when they really weren't. The third is that our society is so drenched in pornography that has enslaved so many men, it is a wonder even more women are not depressed.

And, as Ehrenreich points out, the percentages being touted as significant don't look significant to anybody but the researchers and the know-nothing journalists making hay over them.

Red State Gal
RedStateFeminists

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Is the overall difference between then, and now - and they have no reference as to how "happy" women were pre 1972.

In the 70's there was a lot of drugs, sex, and rock and roll. There was a lot of positive progression in society and activist movements, be it feminism, racial equality progress, etc and so forth.

The general outlook, particularly of young women whose world was a wide open door of opportunity during the feminist movement of the 70's, was that of euphoria, hope, and excitement.

Then, over time, women finally admitted to themselves that all of that progress is great, but in general life still sucks. Just like it does for everyone else.

It's like anything in life - now that the euphoria of Obama's election is over and done with, people are back to politics as usual. Just as the euphoria of being recently married wears off, you realize that it's back to the real world, with all of it's glorious suckiness.

The fact that the feminist honeymoon ended sometime in the early eighties is just shocking! My god, you mean to say that once a big progressive push has ended people don't actually remain in a state of constant happiness forever?!?! The hell you say!!

LOL.

The study is surely a crock, it does nothing but state the obvious - our society and it's constraints suck the life right out of you until you die from either boredom or stress. Any and all little distractions that causes a spike in happiness are just blips on the train of misery.

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...of a feminist being obviously unhappy trying to debunk a study claiming feminism has made women unhappy.

Ehrenreich should be happy anybody bothers to take feminism, or women's happiness for that matter, seriously enough to even waste time study them.

It should be obvious to anyone with half a brain that trying to measure someone's happiness is not at all like taking their temperature. The modern industry which purports to be able to do so is merely churning out one bogus "study" after another. Ehrenreich should have made that point and left it at that.

With that having been said, it should be obvious modern women are less easily pleased and thus pleased less often. It's not rocket science. Feminism is a movement that thrives on its own failures, as well as that aspect of human nature which tends to listen to and take seriously upset, complaining females. The survival of their movement depends on a continuing supply of outspoken, resentful women who believe their rights are being violated. Women's happiness was never one of feminism's real goals.

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Wall street collapsed and they are still worshipping it along with Jesus. They dont want to recognize that when employers slashed wages in the 60s, women had NO CHOICE but to enter the work force? For a few rich it was a choice, but for most women it was purely economic. They needed the money. Now more than ever all that work is weighing on women. They are often raising kids on their own and if they are married, their households wages are being slashed, so they are having to figure out how to do more with less. and trying to figure out child care. that is stressful. Not to mention the fact that women still make 20% less than men. That is sad.

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you. If you apply for a job, or to get into a certain university, or your daughter does, or your sister or mom, you, they, can be legally told that a man gets the spot, just because. Anyone like keeping your own paycheck, not having to hand it over to your husband? Thank feminism. If you happened to divorce, are you glad that you did not automatically have to give the house and kids to the man? Thank feminism.

There has probably been no situation that did so much good that so many have taken advantage of while simultaneously knocking. But women went to jail and were force-fed so you could vote. Women went to jail for wearing pants, and now you can wear what YOU want. Women fought for years so that if your husband died, your house did not automatically belong to your oldest son, who could throw you out. maybe if "American" history included all of us, we'd all know our own history and wouldn't automatically, in a sometimes "pat-my-head" kind of way, agree with a snide, superficially popular stand that has nothing to do with reality.

Yeah, so women look at life from a female point of view, pay attention to what needs addressed, fight for what we think we need without asking permission? Well, that should be nothing to gripe about. The train left the station long ago, guys. I'm amazed that there is still such whining and blaming and scapegoating of feminism, but luckily, it matters not at all. It's too late. We now know it's perfectly fine for any group of people to observe life on their own terms and deal with it on their own terms. Whine away. It's never stopped any train, and didn't stop this one.

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